


Arsenal and the Avengers

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Category: DCU (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 19:48:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1911552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>DC's New York is having mass hallucinations, so the government sends Arsenal to check it out. Only, they're really seeing the Battle of New York, and he falls into it. One veteran Titan, and one team that's just forming get to know each other in a fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arsenal and the Avengers

**Author's Note:**

> We picked up Arsenal from JUST after Sins of Youth for this, and plonked him in at the Battle of New York in _The Avengers_. 
> 
> It was supposed to be a quick fic to introduce Arsenal and Hawkeye to each other. Only Steve happened.
> 
> Some of the dialogue is lifted from memorable quotes for the movie, but most of it was just improvised. Think of Arsenal's arrival as doing a Butterfly Effect on the way the fight goes... similar, but not shot for shot.
> 
> Canonical het pairings mentioned. It's us. Presume Polyamory.

Roy knew he had made a mistake the minute it passed through his head that he hoped the mess in D.C. was the last weirdness he had to deal with for a while. He had been asked by the DEO to look into a case they had there in New York. There had been reports of audial and visual hallucinations on a wide scale. With his guts in a knot, he kissed his _etai yazi_ bye and went to work, carrying both his latest crossbows and his energy pistols, just in case it got ugly.

After all, when people could hear and see things that weren't there, sometimes there was something that needed to be hit, and Roy prefered to do that from a distance. He owed it to his baby girl to stay safe.

It did not take Arsenal long to get in place, having scoped out where the sightings were most frequently being reported. He flipped the latest of Cyborg's gadgets for tracing energies out of a pouch. He barely had it powered on before the thing started shrieking at him.

"Arsenal to Titans Tower, I think you might want to patch…"

He got no further with his call to his team as the sensor went dead-silent for just a moment… and then fell to the ground right where Arsenal had been. Beside it, a completely alien piece of technology that looked like it might have been a strange fin of some robotic beast fell to the street as well.

++++

The sound of explosions around him, the air pressure variations, and the distant alarm of screaming were all more than enough to make Arsenal reach for the energy pistols even before his vision cleared. As he got to his feet, relying on the feel of the air around him as the spots made his view questionable, he processed the inputs as 'danger' and 'act now'.

Gliders with bio-mechanical looking creatures were zooming everywhere, focusing in on a small group of defenders in costumes. That was something familiar at least. Another moment to see the costumes were attacking the things on gliders with strategic shots and teamwork, plus the fact the glider-creatures were paying zero attention to the fact they were destroying things left and right made Arsenal pretty sure which side he wanted to be on.

Alien or human-made, though, he was not about to make lethal shots until he found out if those were true living beings on the gliders. He moved from where he'd first landed to get to a slightly higher vantage atop a car, then started taking out what looked like stabilizers on the gliders.

The fact this made him a target for the ones not on gliders was not lost on him, but he managed to take out four fliers before he had to start dealing with that fact.

//Right, time to be a _moving_ target!// he decided, bouncing from car-roof to car-roof. Maybe he could get close enough to that group to get answers, if he just kept moving. He swore as a pair of convertibles appeared almost under his feet and turned around on the cab to defend himself, picking off more stablizing fins. One of the things hurtled into the pavement bare yards away, and he hissed as he heard new screaming from the closest building. 

Damn, why hadn't he hauled Argent or Starfire along with him on this one? Kory might recognize the things, and nobody but a Lantern was better at protecting civilians than Toni. 

Was he close enough for one of the costumes to hear him? 

+++

Captain America turned his shield toward Iron Man, and the man reacted instantly, banking a shot perfectly to handle another one of the invaders. Then Iron Man's head turned just slightly in the direction of a crash outside of their current holding pattern.

"Looks like we've got someone trying to cut in on this dance," rumbled out of the suit. They had bought a little breathing room with that last shot, and Captain America knew they needed to get a better plan into place.

"Let's try to overlap with him then; we can use any help there is now, and sort it out later," the star-spangled leader said, letting his voice carry to the rest of the team. Black Widow and Hawkeye reacted instantly, aiming shots that bought a little more time for them to actually take up a new position, even if it did mean breaking out of the protected spot they'd built out of debris.

It didn't take long to get close enough to see -- and hear -- the other man that had joined in this fight, and Cap blinked for a moment. Bright colors. Gold and red and a dark rust, a wide, high collar. Bare arms -- powerful muscle there -- before almost elbow-length gauntlets. Bracers? He wasn't certain. Pistols in either hand, but no caliber he recognized, gold holsters on either hip. The stylized, three-headed arrow painted like a target on his chest caught his attention for a moment, but the man was yelling out to them. 

"Hey! Anyone going to give me legal grief if I start taking these things _out_ instead of just down? They keep gettin' back up!" 

"Invaders from another world with a declaration of war! Take them out!" Cap told the newcomer, even as he felt his guts settle about the new help. The kid? young man? was concerned about the sanctity of life. That meant something, even as the fighting intensified again with Natasha shooting one off a building as it was preparing to leap down on them. "Got a name?" Cap asked after he threw his shield through a glider, arm poised to catch it on the rebound.

"Arsenal," he called back, as his shoulders relaxed and Cap could see his focus sharpening. "Thanks!" 

His grip shifted on the pistols, and around them, gliders began to spin out of control as the beings riding them died. Hawkeye and Black Widow were doing much the same, but whatever 'Arsenal' had in those pistols, his shots were having more effect. Cap caught his shield and threw and looked for his next opportunity. There weren't enough of them, there just weren't, but every bit of help was one he was going to take. 

"Cap, got a plan yet?" Iron Man asked, kicking up on his thrusters just a little. He wasn't that sure about the new kid, but hey, he had at least picked some mighty fine colors! 

"We need to take this fight closer to them," was Natasha's intel on the matter, her eyes fixing in on the actual rift causing the invasion. She didn't flinch from the invader that flew over her head, disintegrating from one of Hawkeye's arrows inside it.

Captain America didn't hesitate now. "Agent Romanoff, get to that tower. Iron Man, go high, try to push them from the air, maybe that big convoy thing. Hawkeye… catch a ride with him and start calling as eye in the sky. Arsenal… keep doing that thing you're doing." 

They looked as a small street bike with a lone person came in past the makeshift containment, ignoring the flying debris and threats around them. 

"This looks bad," Bruce Banner said as he came to a stop.

"I've seen worse," Black Widow answered that.

"Sorry about that," Bruce offered, still wondering why the hell he'd come back into this madness.

"No, no, we need worse," Black Widow reassured him on that.

Arsenal flicked his eyes around behind his shades, placing names to costumes. Hawkeye's bow got a single moment's appreciative look, before he went back to shooting. Who the half-dressed guy on the street bike was, he had no idea, but the rest of the group obviously knew him. 

"Thor? Hit them in the air," Captain America told the big Norse guy. "Dr Banner, good of you to rejoin us. We could really use the other guy."

Bruce nodded, turning to face the next wave coming in and walking that way determinedly.

"Aye, Captain," Thor replied, and with a few swings of that gigantic hammer, he left the ground for the air, much like Iron Man had. The half-dressed doctor headed for the wave of incoming hostiles made Arsenal worry for a moment, but then his skin started to ripple, twisting like Baby about to change, and -- 

Holy shit. That was a **very** large green dude. Changeling couldn't pull **that** off. 

One of his pistols chimed, warning him it needed a new pack, and he ducked back behind the cover Cap's shield provided to swap out the packs. Done, he went right back to work from his new spot at the gorgeous and overly-patriotic hunk's back. "Convoy thing?" he questioned, having not seen anything that size. 

Cap just nodded toward the metallic wyrm thing coming at the big green guy. "Like that, but bigger," he said, breathing harder but regulated, getting more oxygen in while he had room to do it.

"Cap, need a boost," Black Widow, or Agent Romanoff as Cap had called her, said before beginning a run his way, eyes having tracked a glider coming in. "Don't shoot it, Native Boy," she warned Arsenal, having spotted the tat. She'd figure out later if he meant it with heart or just thought it was a pretty mark. That would be in the debrief period, if they made it through this.

"No problem," Arsenal answered, picking off the one behind it, "and have fun up there." 

That was the kind of crazy shit Robbie would pull, and damn but he wished Robbie was here to do it. He focused on the ....flying metal wyrm, okay, that was going right up there with the shapeshifting vampire space rats in the annals-of-weird. Bigger than that? That definitely didn't sound fun. "Man, the repair bill on this is going to **suck** ," he muttered between his shots. 

"Worry about the people now, then we'll work on that part later," Cap said firmly, refusing to think on if there would be a later. He braced, tilting the shield just so, and let the woman springboard off it, giving all his own leverage in a push up. Then she was away, and that left Cap with the new kid to protect his back as each team member was in play where they needed to be.

The big green guy punched the incoming wyrm, driving its head down and then used his mass to stop its momentum. It dug up part of the street, but it stayed down and then there were more than enough invaders to fight all over again.

How long the street battle lasted, Arsenal couldn't have said. He swapped packs again, and somehow wound up with one of the invader's long rifles by the time it looked like they might be turning the tide.

"Close the portal!" Cap was saying, and Arsenal was close enough to hear the voice from the robotic looking one, Iron Man, say not to.

"We've got a nuke coming in and I know just where to put it," Iron Man told them.

//Nuke? Oh goddamn...// Arsenal swallowed hard, breathing out a quick prayer as he found his next target. Nothing he could do about that but pray and hope Iron Man managed exactly what he thought he could. // _Etai yazi_ , baby girl, I love you...// 

"We'll hold as long as we can, Iron Man," Cap said.

"Copy," Black Widow acknowledged.

"Keep working on the invaders here," Cap then told Arsenal and the others, trying not to track the skies for just what his teammate was about to do. 

That was all they could do, the missile streaking in to be met by Iron Man in the sky and forced ever upward to the hole in the sky. For Cap, once he could break to solely focus on that climbing blur, he felt his heart squeeze. Was he about to have to make a call that would cost them a man? Why was it always his stubborn pains in the ass that chose the self-sacrifice route? 

The blur was out of sight in the rift, a clock ticking in his head, and no sign of Stark coming back. He let that clock run down as long as he dared… and made the call. "Close it," he called over the communicator. High above, Natasha followed orders, a very brief moment of empathy for Pepper Potts as she did so.

"But he's not -- " Arsenal cut of his own protest before Cap's head could even swing around to him. If that nuke's explosion made it back through that portal, right here over the city... He'd seen the radiation sickness in Qurac. Cap was right. 

"I know," Cap managed to say quietly. "I know." All of that choice weighed on him, even as he realized Stark would have known. 

"Yeah," Arsenal said, low, as he looked up, watching that portal slowly -- **slowly** \-- shut, and -- Tiny dot of red and gold, barely even visible, falling. He holstered one pistol to grab Cap's arm, loud sharp exhale breaking out of his mouth. "Look!"

Captain America's eyes went wide as he saw that, waiting to see the thrusters kick in. A heartbeat later, then another, and no thrusters. "Thor!" he cried out, hoping the god could…

...and they saw Hulk move so fast, running and leaping, springing to a high rise, using his mass and inertia to throw himself up as high as he could go. Cap's voice choked in his throat; he'd **known** Dr Banner was far more an asset than any of them had believed, and yet this was above and beyond their wildest hopes.

Arsenal watched as the 'other guy' hit one of the skyscrapers with force like freaking _Doomsday_ , one hand carefully cupped. Was -- _yes_. Gold and red, but... so still. Now, where was the big guy gonna land? 

Cap was tracking that too, and as soon as he thought he had the trajectory, he was running for the spot. Thor was en route to them; Black Widow was too high and making certain all of the invaders near the tower were actually inert now. Hawkeye had left his perch and was somewhere inside a building.

The big guy landed hard, bounced, and then flung the red and gold hero off of him. Thor was the first to reach him, but Cap was right there as Thor reached down to turn the fallen hero over. The Hulk remained back, confusion written on the green features, pacing in a very small spot as Thor ripped the face plate off of their teammate.

Blue tinge to his lips, unconscious -- no, worse than. Shit, were they going to lose him anyway? Gods damn it, _no_. "Can't do CPR past that armor..." 

Cap had seen that, falling back and almost deflating as he saw it. Thor speculatively looked at his hammer, but he'd exhausted most of the electricity in the skies. 

Then the big guy roared at the hero he'd caught… and the man in the suit gasped to consciousness. "What happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."

The tone of voice was mostly joking, almost as if he didn't want to have missed any such kissing. Cap smiled, shaking his head a little. 

"We won."

Now that the guy was breathing again, Roy could notice that he was actually kind of cute, though the scruffy... well, he did it better. Though it didn't look bad at all on that face. Iron Man grinned a little. "Alright. Hey. Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it." 

"Kinda like a gyro, except roasted different and more shaved than just cut. Best if you find somewhere that's got multiple meats stacked," Roy answered, "Great on a pita, or -- whatever the heck the other one is... 'lavash'? Something like that." 

The green guy, the god, the patriot, and even the armored guy all looked at him as if suddenly remembering his presence. Then Thor grinned, and reached out, clapping Arsenal on the shoulder.

"A true warrior who knows the feast that should happen next!" he praised.

Cap nodded, but he looked back toward the last known location of the author of their misery. "One more thing to do." He touched his comm and gave the recall point for the rest of the team so they could go capture Loki for once and all.

Thor reached down to aid Iron Man in rising and supported him most of the way to where his brother was. Cap glanced at Arsenal.

"Staying with us?" he asked, just in case the kid wanted to lose himself now the fight was over.

"Sure, why not? You're probably my best chance -- on this side of things -- of getting back where I'm supposed to be," Arsenal said, shrugging a shoulder. "Did you say 'Loki', though?" 

"Think I mentioned him a bit ago, yeah," Cap told the young man. "Thor's problem once we get to him." He'd made up his mind on that. Asgard would take their tech and problem child back, because damned if he was trusting SHIELD with it. 

"Alright," Roy agreed, flicking another look at the broad-shouldered blond. Definitely best to have someone familiar with the problem, how many times had they seen that with Donna and her problems? "Right behind you." 

"Did a good job watching my back too," Cap told him. "You and Agent Barton would be hard-pressed to prove who had the better aim, I think." They made it to the building that had been the focal point for the entire battle, then went down to find a mythical Jotun still dazed and confused in cavity of the floor. The rest of the team was assembling, and Arsenal saw as the being regained enough sense to blur from the blue frost-giant to something more human looking.

Arsenal looked down at the dazed being on the floor, wondering what all of this had been about... but he had to quirk a smile at the "If it's all the same to you, I'll have that drink now". The man -- god, being, whatever -- had brass, at least. No one else seemed amused, though, and he found a spot on a wall to watch what happened. 

++++

After the food, shared in the quiet of post-battle fatigue, Iron Man gave them all leave to come back to his tower.

"I don't think going anywhere near the Helicarrier is a good idea right now," Cap agreed. "Not until we know why that nuke was launched."

"Someone called it as a no-win, decided the casualty loss of just Manhattan was more acceptable than allowing the beachhead," Hawkeye offered. Black Widow nodded at that assessment, but neither SHIELD operative made a protest against Cap's call.

It took a few minutes of Iron Man in his lab to come up with power-inverting cuffs, while Thor insisted on a muzzle as well, in order to protect the fact he had custody of Loki. Despite the necessity of such bindings, Arsenal saw that Thor tried to be as gentle as possible about restraining the other god. While they'd gotten their food, it had been a simple gag and a piece of rebar Hulk had wrapped around Loki's wrists and another around his ankles… but this was obviously soothing Thor's sense of duty a lot more.

Whatever had been going on, that had brought that army of half-robot, half-living beings here, it seemed to have been this Loki's doing, which didn't make him Arsenal's favorite person.

"I will guard him, with the good doctor, so all of you may have a chance to tend your wounds and change," Thor suggested.

"I could handle…"

"Clint."

One soft word from the red headed woman and the archer subsided. He then left with her, leaning heavily on her now that his adrenaline was fully off and all of his injuries were hitting his awareness.

"C'mon Cap and … kid in my colors," Tony said. "I can find clothes and show you a place to clean up."

"It's Arsenal," Roy said, then shrugged slightly, "but you can make it Roy. Haven't managed a secret identity since I was still running at GA's heel, and I'm pretty damn sure I'm not where I belong anyway. And I'd appreciate clean clothes, thanks."

"Well, in case you didn't catch it all, that was Metallica's poster child, Thor, and the second smartest man on the team, Bruce Banner," Tony began. "The two spy kids that already went out… like she thinks she still lives here… were Raggedy Ann and…" He stopped at Cap's glare and cough. "Okay, Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton of the SHIELD group that tried to nuke Manhattan. I'm Tony Stark, smartest member of the group of degenerate reprobates that Cap here -- short for Capsicle -- had the pleasure of leading today."

//Metallica's -- oh. _Ride the lightning_ ,// Roy realized, and grinned, humming the first bars of _Fight Fire with Fire_ since he didn't have his sticks on hand. This guy -- who apparently had money like the Bat and more mouth than _he_ did -- had patter down to a fine art. Roy could appreciate that, given that he was something of a bullshit artist himself. "Shield?" 

"Paramilitary super-secret intel organization that seems really terrified of people that think, have power, or make power for themselves and want to use it to make the world a better place. Not saying they're all bad, but like most of dad's pet projects, they're bugged," Tony offered.

"Howard was at least trying," Cap said, but he cut the argument off to look at Roy. "Name's Steve, Steve Rogers. I've learned that the best label for Tony Stark is 'neo-liberal corporate anarchist'," he added for explanation.

"Ooh, Natasha talking dirty about me again?" Tony said without having any ire over that label.

Roy grinned a little wider, entertained by the fast back and forth. Edged and sharp, but the grief that had been on Cap's face -- the idea of losing the wise-cracking had-to-be-billionaire had hurt him. Stark wasn't likely to believe that, though. Not at the moment. 

Hell, when did he start trying to figure _out_ team dynamics instead of just going along with them? "I'm guessing you're relatively new to working together? And okay, yeah, we call our super-secret intel organization Checkmate. Funny, last time I was working for them full-time I wound up too gods-damned close to a nuke, too. Nice to meet you both, Steve, Tony."

"First real cooperative effort. The last couple didn't pan out all that well," Steve said.

"I'll be just as happy to never get that close to one again." Tony shuddered, and then glared as the lights fritzed a few moments. "JARVIS?"

"Sir, the building has suffered a major integrity breach, and I am hesitant to bring the reactor back online. The generators will have to do," a voice answered.

Tony frowned. "I suppose it will do. Just don't let DUM-E anywhere near them and we'll be fine."

"I assigned him to fire response, Sir," Jarvis assured him.

Steve didn't say anything, just continuing to follow Tony until they reached a recreational level of the building. "Miss Pott's idea?"

"Happy's. She agreed," Tony corrected.

"Nice place," Roy said, flicking his eyes around it. Modern, trendy, but almost as masculine as the girls sometimes bitched about a couple of the rec rooms. 

"It will be even better when I redo it; nice to have an excuse to use this as a prototype," Tony said, taking the silver-lining approach. "Showers there, exercise clothes on the shelves inside the locker room, and if you'll excuse me, I'm going up to the exec level. JARVIS, have you got Pepper on the phone yet?" he asked as he walked out of the rec room.

Steve looked at Roy. "Don't let Stark rub you wrong; he's too good at doing that to people that it's easy to miss that he does mean well."

Roy looked at the still-swinging door for a second, then let his lips quirk, amused. "I know a couple of people a little like him -- yes, _please_ pity me," he said with a wider grin as a horrified look crossed Steve's face, "I'm kinda used to it. But yeah, I'll take it easy about him. Probably a _great_ way to annoy him if I don't let him ruffle my feathers, right?" 

He headed for the showers as he said that last bit, starting to peel out of the pieces of the armor as soon as he was through the shower-room door. He was just about nude before he realized he might be unsettling the hunk sharing the room with him, but a quick glance over his shoulder said Cap -- which wasn't for 'Capsicle', no matter what Stark said -- didn't seem phased. Good to know. 

Steve had long since shed the mask; he saw that Arsenal had the military-jock approach to shower rooms and started peeling out of his suit as well. Hot water… he promised himself he'd keep it short so Dr Banner could get one soon… was just what he needed. "Probably will annoy him if he can get you riled up. Or make him interested. I'm told that's how his CEO got his attention so firmly."

If he kept talking to the new guy, maybe he wouldn't relive that fall in his head. Maybe he could believe they'd saved everyone. Maybe he wouldn't think about Coulson. He wondered if Nat had even told Barton about that part yet.

"CEO? Thought the half-dead sign up top read 'Stark', and he moves like he was born with more in the bank than Fort Knox has got..?" Roy asked as he soaped up and started really scrubbing down. 

"Apparently he was dying once and made her take the company," Steve told the stranger. "He got better." Maybe… no, Phil Coulson's passion about those cards had been so strong. He would have had them in his jacket pocket, high, waiting for that opportunity to get Steve to sign them. "So, you said not from around here, and you wear high tech gear, but don't know me or Stark, so… did you fall through the rift? Because I'm giving the Tesseract back to Thor, so he can take it where it belongs."

So there was more to 'Cap' than the gorgeous face, super strength, and inhuman reflexes. He was quick with his thoughts, too. "Not sure I 'fell through', but I'm pretty sure your rift is why I'm here, yeah. We were getting reports of hallucinations, visual and audial, so I got tagged to go check it out. I got about to -- well, where y'all met me -- and the energy-reading gear I had started going nuts. One second, I was talking to my team, and the next I was getting to deal with yet another fun installment in the ongoing saga of aliens taking bites out of the Big Apple. 

"I keep telling the city they really need to nix that nickname, since it's apparently an invitation, but hey, what do _I_ know?" 

Steve laughed -- it might have been a shade on the hysterical side because of the losses -- because he couldn't not. Roy was definitely no stranger to the weird stuff. He also wasn't as young as he looked, Steve decided, because there was experience in his voice and stress around his eyes that younger people rarely showed in this decade.

"Point." He closed his eyes and leaned back so he could wash his hair, letting the water run down his face. "Might have to play nicely with SHIELD to get you back to your realm. Or maybe Thor would know how. But he's got to get the Tesseract and Loki out of here before I have to deal with SHIELD."

Roy smiled at managing to get Steve to laugh, completely pleased with himself. The concern over getting him back home helped him be even more certain he was with the right people. "Might, but then, my team will be looking for me, too. They won't quit 'til they find me, either. So, dare I ask what a 'Tesseract' is? Sounds like something out of one of those books I was supposed to read for my GED and ignored." 

"G.E.D…. wait, I know I stumbled over this… soldier program to get early enlisters their diplomas? I think I heard something about that when I was in France," Steve said. "You don't look military though."

Roy blinked, turning under the water to look at Steve. 'When I was in France', not familiar with a lot of modern slang, an _incredible_ bearing, like Sentinel and the JSA Flash and Wildcat more than anything else. Right, somebody out of his own time, like Lady Blackhawk. 

"Nah, not military. _Very_ not military, though I'm damn grateful to 'em. The government expanded the program to people whose lives got in the way of trying to get through normal school sometime in the... late fifties? Maybe early sixties? I'm pretty much the poster child for life getting in the way, but Di bullied me into the GED tests once she had my head straightened back out."

Steve nodded at that, hearing a wealth of stories in that 'life getting in the way' line. "A lot of the boys I met over there never had been near a high school, and wouldn't have, in their normal lives. The war did at least open some doors for them." He gave himself another rinse, then reached for a towel. "Don't want to leave Dr Banner alone too long on guard when he needs a break, and Barton doesn't need to be the relief," he told Roy. "Take your time, although Thor might appreciate it if he got relieved too."

"Looked like Barton -- Hawkeye, you called him? -- had a few things broken, so nah, he sure doesn't need to be," Roy agreed as he checked that the soap was out of his hair and off his skin. "Nah, I'll follow," he said as he flicked the water off and grabbed a towel of his own. Plush, incredibly richly so, like the towels at the Manor... how did anybody ever feel _dry_ with these things? "First time I've met any of the Norse pantheon, even if I have put a few arrows in Ares over the years. Coeus and his bunch are our problems more often, though, Changing Woman let them _stay gone_ this time!" 

"Still wrapping my head around the mythologies I learned in school being based on real beings from another dimension," Steve admitted, drying off enough to slide into Stark Industries Athletic Wear pants… almost balking at the sweatshirt with the huge Stark emblem over the left breast. Memories of that plane ride to rescue Bucky, his failure… he couldn't stop his hands from shaking even as he forced himself to put the thing on. "No sense dealing with the gear right now; the shield's all I have to have."

The movement at the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he saw the way Steve's hands were shaking, the way his jaw was locked. He knew those, he knew them too damned well, but at least Steve was still talking, focused on the present. Not fully slid into a flashback, at least. He gathered up clothes of his own after a quick hunt for the right sizes, sticking with sweatpants and a t-shirt. He fished his holsters off his gear, strapped them into place over the sweats, then gathered the rest of it back up to stick on one of the shelves. "....given 'Norse god', I probably ought to put the armor back on, but I don't want to. I can duck back behind that shield of yours, right?" 

"That's what it's for," Steve told him easily, forcing himself to remember something better. "I was handed the prototype. A woman pulled her gun out and shot at me… and that was its first real test."

"...that sounds like a couple people I know's method of 'testing' things," Roy said, shaking his head as he followed Steve out of the rec room and back towards where they'd left the pair of gods. "...and, okay, that might include me," he admitted after a second, thinking of a few trick arrows and one particular costume. "So did it work as-intended, or do you have a great scar somewhere?" 

He hadn't noticed many when he'd looked Steve over, but. You didn't stare in a shower without already knowing it was okay, so he might've missed a few. 

"It worked, alright, which I noticed after getting over the 'you shot at me' reaction," Steve said easily. Peggy had been one hell of a woman. 

He got them back to the holding room. Loki was as restrained as he had been, and the doctor was looking over a technical journal Tony had left there. The pair of agents were not in sight, but Thor had somehow acquired more food that was on the table to be shared. 

"You two want to go get clean? Arsenal and I will keep watch," Steve told the pair of current guards.

Thor looked hesitant at that idea, looking at his brother who did still seem contained. "Nay, my friend, I shall not forsake my duty to protect Midgard, nor my obligations to Asgard. Comfort may wait." He hastily looked to Steve to try and forestall offense. "I hold no doubts upon your ability to guard Loki, but I have made promises."

Steve waved away the concern; he wasn't offended in the least. "Dr Banner, if you go up two flights you'll be in a rec area. Showers and exercise clothes."

"Getting to be a habit, this whole borrowed clothes thing," he said, still chagrined that Clint had pulled a pair of pants out of a boutique for him, leaving behind a twenty for the shop.

"Given the way your mass shifts, I'd think you use one of the unstable molecule fabrics," Roy said, thinking. "Not the compression matrix stuff, that wouldn't help, but the stuff Green-Genes wears... aaaand you don't have those yet, okay," he said at the way Steve and Bruce -- Dr. Banner -- were staring at him. "I'll try and remember what he's spouted off, see if I can't give you a little help, but I'm really not a scientist, sorry." 

"Throw me the basic idea and I can hash it out with Stark," Bruce told him. "He's the more practical application inventor sort," he added, with a note of respect.

"And his inventions explode less often than his father's did," Steve said with a small smile and amusement, still able to see the smoke of that futuristic car that had failed at the expo. 

"Perhaps, once I have returned to Asgard, it will be a matter our own science can help with," Thor said. "I will ask, and be glad to bring back word once duties allow."

"That would be so you can see Dr Foster," Tony said, entering in a pair of lounge pants and an AC/DC shirt. "But we won't tell anyone else. By the way, do you think she could use a grant? I'd be interested in looking into practical applications of her quantum theories."

Roy nodded, trying to haul scraps of old conversations up out of his head. "Do what I can," he agreed. //Okay, so Steve knew Tony's father, pretty well, and Tony has daddy issues that sound about like Robbie's, so that's probably not real great on either of them. And yep, there's the money getting tossed around again...// 

"A 'grant'? What is this?" Thor asked, looking curiously towards Tony. "And yes, of course I will be most pleased to see the Lady Jane again." 

On the floor, Loki's eyes flashed an unsettling shade of red -- //shit, that looks like Rae on a _really bad day_ // -- as his skin shifted to a vaguely blue shade, like he'd been those first few moments after they'd gotten up here. 

"Grants… money to let her keep thinking and solving instead of working for unsavory people like our poor Dr Selvig had to," Tony said with a shrug. He had noticed the flash though, as the peculiar glowing light under his t-shirt intensified a little. "I'll make sure Pepper catches up with her. Dr Ross too, Bruce… but I'd like you to seriously consider my offer for visiting R&D here."

"Thinking about it," Bruce answered, old hurt and hope mingling at the mention of his own former girlfriend.

"Right, so what's the next move, Old Man? While our favorite spies stay absent so they don't have to pretend not to know what you're planning?" Tony asked.

"You all plot while I get that shower?" Bruce asked. Time to wash up and finish settling back down might help with the Other Guy still growling in the back of his head. 

Roy found a section of counter to lean back against while the people that actually _belonged_ here talked out their next moves. There had been a lot of real affection on that 'favorite spies' comment of Tony's. Good to know. 

"The Tesseract…"

"...goes back with you and your brother," Steve said firmly. "And I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm still thinking over exactly what Fury was thinking in his manipulations. I can almost see greater good…"

"...and he did warn me of the nuke," Tony threw in.

"...but I hate flying blind on someone else's intel when they hold pieces back," Steve finished. "On the other hand, we're on the map, so to speak, for trouble from Out There. And we did save Manhattan."

Thor nodded, his own concerns settling down. "I have vowed to protect Midgard, for it was my folly that led to the threat upon your realm. I will make certain you can reach me for aid, my warrior-friend!"

"Sounds good to me. I've got to analyze the data I pulled from Fury's files before I'll work with him again… but you two, the doc… not so bad," Tony agreed. "It's complicated for me and the Widow, but I gotta say Barton's pretty ballsy to walk back into the fight so quick after the head-job." He was specifically watching Loki as he said it, trying to be sure Natasha was actually safe from anything hidden in Barton's head.

Loki was obviously seething with frustration, temper written in every line of his body, eyes flickering from red to blue to green to blue. 

Roy was even more curious now, there were layers on layers here, and if he was gonna be stuck here a while -- //Changing Woman, Blue Shell Girl, bring me home quicker than that...// -- he'd be best off to understand as much as he could. He just also wasn't going to poke at them in front of a blatantly hostile prisoner, either. 

On the heels of that last, the two 'spies' came back in, fully dressed in civilian clothing. Natasha looked to Tony, who gave a slight nod at her, before she checked Steve. The supersoldier cocked his head in question at her.

"Fury says you have roughly one hour to handle things, Cap," she told him. "That's as long as he can stall the ones who made the order for the tactical strike."

"Everyone cleaned up, dressed, and ready to go before that hour is up, then," Steve said. "Might be best for each of us to disappear and not answer the phone for a little while."

"Good plan, for all of you," Tony said. "Me, I tell congress to fuck off, so it's not like I would disappear," he said cheerfully.

"Where'd you have clothes?" Steve asked both SHIELD agents.

"I keep a room here, with a bag," she said. 

"I knew Pepper liked you too much," Tony said, but there was no heat in it. That her bag had also had clothing for Clint was telling, now wasn't it?

"Let's get clothes set up for me and Roy here, with duffels to pack our gear in. Transportation for after Thor leaves…."

"Plenty of cars in the garage," Tony said. "Most not directly registered to me for paparazzi reasons."

Roy nodded. "Appreciate the hand, Cap. Pretty sure I don't want to have to deal with yet another super-secret intel agency all on my own. And thanks, Tony, since you're the one footing the bill. Who do I stick with?" 

"Me for now." Steve looked over at Natasha. "Do you trust Fury?"

"Yes," came the unwavering answer.

"Roy's not in his right dimension; we're going to need resources to get him home as soon as we're clear enough to pop our heads back up," Steve said. "Keep your ear on that." She nodded, all while helping herself to more of the food Thor had acquired.

"No sweat, kid," Tony said, popping a message off to Happy. About time he could be useful. "Clothes and keys will be brought, got my number two working on gathering your things with them."

"Is he still upset that his job really doesn't exist any more?" Natasha asked.

"Pepper is going to promote him, head of security for the company," Tony said with a shrug.

Roy moved over to grab some food himself, knowing better than to not eat when it was in front of him, and settled in to wait until they got moving again. "Never did get an answer on what the heck a 'Tesseract' is, anyone wanna clue me in?" 

"It is a power device that Midgard is not yet ready for, easily abused by those who only seek to harness it," Thor said. He looked down at his brother. "Eventually I shall know how it came to exit Asgard's keeping, for I thought my father had locked it away some time before."

"It almost turned the Second World War against the Allies," Steve said. "I went missing with it once I acquired it from Hydra."

"And SHIELD was using it to build weapons to fight off any more Asgardian intrusions that came," Natasha said, admitting what Tony had already discovered and announced before the Helicarrier fight. "Under the guise of finding renewable energy."

Roy snorted, darkly amused, "Alright, then. One of those things better off _not_ on Earth, and even one that might explain part of how I got here. Thanks."

Barton was watching him now, rather than let his eyes keep going to the prisoner. He flicked over the details of arms that were shaped by the draw of a bow, the fact that Roy did not cant his body to favor one eye over the other like some marksmen. This new ally interested him, and he knew he'd follow Nat's lead in guarding the boy from Fury's intimidation tactics.

 _"Starting to root for this guy,"_ passed through his mind and he felt his soul turning sideways on itself. How long? How long had he counted on Coulson to anchor him?

Nat's hand tightened on his wrist, reminding him he wasn't completely alone. When she'd broken the news to him in the shower, he'd leaned against her for almost a full minute, and she'd understood.

Coulson had been theirs.

Grief. Roy could see it in the shape of the other archer's mouth, the way Romanoff's hand wrapped around his wrist to keep him steady. they'd lost someone. Someone personal... the same reason Cap's hands had been shaking? He looked back at Barton, appraising, and then there was a man in the doorway, duffle bag over each shoulder. //That was fast.// 

"Ahh, thanks, Happy! All the unmarkeds out in the drive?" Tony asked. 

"Two cars and a bike," Happy said. "Miss Potts had the other unmarked when she left for her trip."

"You okay with riding with me?" Steve asked, even as he eyed the bags. "I'd like to try on a motorcycle; learned how to drive them in the war."

"It's got a sidecar attached now," Happy told the legend that was part of Stark Industries' history.

"I'm not getting in a sidecar, but I don't mind taking the bike," Roy said, his mouth quirking wryly at the thought. At least on _this_ bike he wasn't going to be riding behind Di, feeling about like his height behind her was going to tip the thing. Steve was built more like _Vic_ , and wasn't that an interesting thought? "Sidecar can haul the bags."

"Okay, that's settled then. And here's the doc to let us get this show on the road," Tony said as Bruce walked back in wearing normal clothes. "You two pretty boys get dressed," he added as Happy brought them the dufflebags, jeans, and shirts. "Then we'll all go outside, let Thunderstruck here do his thing, and split before Fury's leash holders have to push him after us."

Steve picked up the clothes, dragging them to the nearby lavatory to get changed. "Amazing to see us all on the same sheet of music," he said just before he ducked in.

"Hard not to be, when we're all hearing the same dirge," Bruce answered that.

Roy's mouth quirked at the momentarily puzzled look on Thor's face, even though now he was hearing those chords in his head. "Sounds like a plan, handsome."

He hefted the weight of the bag, nodded at the feel of his armor, and stripped off the holsters to tuck them in on top of the rest of it. Good to have his gear back on-hand, he thought as he pulled his boots and a pair of socks out. Steve was still in the lavatory, so he just turned his back on the people in the room to swap into real clothes. No way was he getting on a bike in sweats. //'Pretty boys', is it, Tony? I'm starting to think I'm older than all of you but maybe Romanoff... but hey, I'll take the compliment.// 

The legs of the jeans hid most of his boots well enough, and they fit tight enough at the waist to hold one of his pistols in place. Shirt down over it, and he felt pretty good to go. 

"So not only does he wear my colors but he's up to a flirt. I like this," Tony said as Roy was changing. "Bruce, you look a lot less green around the gills now. How about coming away with me and chattering science for a while? Know a quiet little place to let you rest, research, and only break things if you really want to."

Bruce gave him a look of amusement; it was growing on him that Tony absolutely refused to fear the Other Guy. "That works." He looked over at Natasha, checking to see if they were done with the strange dance they had begun when she came to find him. That she smiled, and there was no fear in her eyes, soothed more of his mind and heart.

"On your feet, Loki," Thor said firmly once Steve returned. "We shall be in Asgard soon, where you can explain to mother why you felt the need to break her heart."

Loki's eyes nearly sparked, but he got to his feet nearly as easily as Robbie would have, Roy noticed while he made sure he had everything gathered up. "Pretty sure they've been my colors longer, hotshot, but hey, your world, I guess you get to claim 'em." 

He reached up, pulling his shades down away from his eyes, and looked across at Tony. "I'd say you haven't _seen_ 'flirt' yet, but I think you're a little preoccupied with somebody else right now." 

Steve was smiling at the exchange, even as Tony made kissy lips Roy's way before moving on to Bruce's side. If Roy did not make it home… maybe he would be a good fit among their team.

"We'll witness that the Tesseract and Loki are gone, then make our way back to Fury," Natasha said. "He should have a brief for us by then." It wasn't the first time she'd played more sides than one. She'd fought and bled with these men, but there was still a pull to Fury, for accepting Barton and Coulson's choice about her. She wanted answers about that tactical strike as well.

Thor led them all out, once a case had been brought with what Roy could only guess was the Tesseract. The cars and bike were waiting, and things were quiet… the kind of quiet that came after violent battle had stripped away all illusions of safety.

Too damned familiar a quiet, Roy thought, his eyes checking the area again and again as he trotted to the bike and tucked his duffel down inside, making sure there was room for Cap's bag and shield. He kind of liked the big Norseman, thought he looked like the kind that could give Donna a good fight, but he wasn't going to be sad to see Loki's back. _That_ one made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. There was crazy in those eyes, crazy and hate and fear under it. 

The case was opened and a cube that glowed eerily blue was given to Thor. At a fierce look from the fair-haired god, Loki brought his hands up enough to grasp it and the pair vanished in a storm of energy. Clint and Natasha walked over to the one car, as Tony and Bruce headed for the open-topped one.

"Let's go get lost while the smoke clears," Steve said, walking over to put his gear in the sidecar.

"Right with ya," Roy agreed, and it only took another moment for Steve to be on the bike Roy pulled a helmet off the handlebars and swung on behind him, settling in. He let his arms wrap around Steve's hard body, breathing his scent through the open front of the helmet. Matched what he had, right now, Stark's soap and shampoo, but... something else under it. 

++++

Roy roamed the small motel room, giving the twin beds with duvets that looked like the seventies had never left a dark look. But at least the bathroom was clean and the walls weren't paper-thin. Steve had driven for several hours, taking exits at what seemed like random intervals and totally by whim. Best way to avoid someone tailing you... at least as soon as you were away from the thousands of surveillance cameras that littered every major city. Out on open roads, it was so much easier to disappear. This small town might have a few red-light cameras, but he doubted they were hooked to the wider world. 

"So, our nuke-throwing intelligence organization," he said, half-asking, "they likely to come after you hard, or just send somebody to try and talk you back in?"

"Been thinking about that," Steve admitted. "Fury's the kind that likes to come talk to his targets, play stern papa or wiser friend or drill sergeant, as needed." He fell out on the bed nearer the door, sprawling with his ankles crossed and his hands under his head. "It's not really him I worry about. Agent Romanoff, I trust. And she trusts him. It's whomever decided to order the strike. Could just have been the idea we weren't going to win… but it could have been an attempt to cover tracks and be rid of us in one move. What Stark turned up leads me to believe that the Avenger Initiative was more to put the trouble under scrutiny and where it could be flushed away than to actually let us protect Earth."

"...so, let me check and make sure I'm on the same page with you. 'Fury', whoever he is, is in charge of Shield, general or commander or whatever, and he's at least mostly trustworthy, but he's got people he answers to -- the UN? Part UN and part who-knows? -- that don't necessarily have you or the rest of the 'Avengers' best interests at heart?" 

Yei'i bless, but that sounded too damned familiar. He watched Steve's face, curious, while he put a pistol on the nightstand and then dropped onto the other bed. 

"Someone. Going to have to trust Stark to figure that part out," Steve said, rolling to his side so he could look at Roy. "Or Agent Romanoff. I have a gut feeling she's going to get to the bottom first, because she doesn't care for being used without knowing the full playbook." He admired her; she had a calm professionalism that reminded him of Peggy. "Of course, if your own world's people find you first, that might sow a little more chaos into the mix and let us see other angles."

"From where I'm standing, letting y'all see some more angles sounds good to me," Roy said, and grinned a little at Steve's curious arch of an eyebrow. "You put up a hell of a fight, your hearts're in the right places, and I really don't like anybody that'd drop a nuke on the US. Hell, drop one _anywhere_ , but Manhattan I take a little personally, even if it's not my Manhattan. ...forgive me for being nosy, but how long have you been several decades in your future?" 

Steve fished the phone he'd been given by Stark… found in his bag… out and looked at the date on it. "Less than two weeks since I woke up."

//Two weeks? You've been -- // 

A war with beings from other dimensions and other worlds, a nuclear strike when -- hell, had the worst of the bombs even been developed when he... went to sleep? Got put into a coma? Whatever had happened to him, anyway. Trying to put a team together with the child of a man he knew and had been fond of, making calls on his gut and not much else, while trying to get his balance in a world that had to be so completely changed... and whoever that loss was that had had Barton grieving. Was it the same loss that had made his hands shake? "Damn, man. You're holdin' it together real well, then."

Steve let out a deep, long breath. "Doesn't feel like it, Roy. I… it took the death of a man for us all to actually pull our heads out of … well, to get in the game and actually work together!" He shook his head. "A man with no powers, not really a field agent, or at least not any more by the looks of him, more of a coordinator. But he had guts. And he stood up to the big bad when no one would have faulted him to run!" He wound up clenching his hands into fists. "He looked up to me. Was friends with most of the others. And he died before we could all put our egos aside and actually stop Loki."

"I'm sorry you lost him," Roy said, quiet and honest. Losing the people that stood by you, the ones that could run and didn't... that was one of the hardest things there was. Sometimes it felt like dying would be easier than surviving those losses. "But you're entitled to some culture-shock. You pretty obviously didn't get any time to get used to everything that's changed before you got thrown right into another fight."

Steve managed a little shrug, even with the way he was stretched out on his side. "I was a ninety-eight pound weakling with asthma and half a dozen other things that science turned into this," he said, his upper hand gesturing at his well-formed and very muscular body. "I survived being thrown under the ice, drowning there, and being thawed out decades later. Sure, things have changed, but it's all details to learn. More important is knowing there's still bullies that need their butts kicked so the little guys… and girls… don't suffer."

//Ninety-eight pound -- _wow_.// "Science does some amazing things," he said to that first bit, while he tried to wrap his head around the rest of it. 'Sure, things have changed'.... He couldn't imagine taking losing his entire world that well. Hell, when shit went south in his life, he tended to crash and burn. Yei'i only knew what he'd do in a situation like Steve was in... and what was the man doing? Standing up and fighting for the people who needed it. 

Like Di, like Robbie, like Wals... "And yeah, there sure are. Feels like too damn many, some days." 

"They told me we won," Steve said, softly, and let all the rest of his doubt on this century come through in those quiet words. He rolled back onto his back, closing his eyes. He wouldn't sleep, not much anyway, but he could feel the crash coming from so much fighting. And for what? What was he preserving beyond the lives of innocents that hadn't even cared to see that they were less free than he'd been growing up?

Roy breathed out a slow sigh, hearing so much agonized doubt in that. "There's an entire culture that would have been exterminated if your generation hadn't stood up. More than one, since he wanted to kill the Rom, gays, anyone not like -- well, not to put to fine a point on it, but that didn't look like -- you. Probably would have wiped out my people, too, if they'd gotten over here. Yeah. You won, the US won. Have we done a lot of stupid shit since? Hell yes. But we're _here_ , and we can keep trying." 

Steve opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. "You don't much look like anything other than an Irish to me, but Natasha saw something in your tattoo, and some of the ways you talk are very … not Irish." He turned just his head back that way. "Your world had the war too, and you can recognize things well enough, so… talk about you some." He couldn't think about the war, its effects, why they'd been there. Not right now.

Roy chuckled, low, and worked his way out of his boots before he flopped over onto his back, staring at the ceiling. "Irish blood, you've got that pegged," he agreed, putting one hand behind his neck, "but I don't even really remember him. No idea who my mom was, don't remember her at all. He was a park ranger, down in the Four Corners region -- sorry, where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona all touch. He went to deal with a fire one day, and didn't come back. One of his friends, a Dineh man that had no wife, no children, took my scrawny white-boy butt in, raised me as his kid." 

"That's cool. Had a friend, Jim Morita… his people suffered for our own side being blind to what America really was. Fought hard for what he believed in, though." Steve half-smiled at memories of Jim telling off the others on the team for making assumptions. "You'd think we would have gotten in sooner, harder, when our entire country was built up on the backs of those who had been different or unwanted. But no, you could see it so clear in New York. The Italians, the Irish… and words I've already figured out shouldn't be used now for some of the others. Nobody was really an American at heart first… and maybe that's what the problem was then. Not sure it went away from what I've seen, though it seems more about city versus country and rich versus poor," Steve said. "Have no idea how things are for the Native Tribes of America, but something tells me it never got any better."

"Mmm... it's better than it was in the forties? The Civil Rights movement in the Sixties sparked a similar movement among us. It's not a lot better, but nobody takes the kids away to boarding schools and beats 'em for speakin' their own languages, we've got local schools and a few judges that actually try and hold the rest of the country to the treaties they made. But no, it's still not great," Roy agreed, his eyes following cracks in the ceiling. 

"The man that took me in, he taught me to shoot.... taught me a lot. But I got close to being a teenager... and the clan decided they didn't want my outsider blood mixing with someone properly born-for and born-to. That got kind of ugly, and he took a chance. Reached out to a man he'd known once, one of the 'hero community'. An archer like me, someone that would see what I can do and encourage it. 

"Which is how I moved from a hogan in Arizona to the bright lights of Star City California. Twelve years old, no more clue about how the _belgaana_ world worked than a two-year-old, and suddenly the ward of a guy with a heart the size of his entire body and less sense than a two-day-old javelina." 

Steve sat up to look over at him. "Seriously?" He'd thought he'd been stranger in the strange land as he adapted to what the Army used him for up until he'd rescued …. no, he wasn't thinking about Bucky, not right now. "What's a javelina?" he asked as a follow up.

Roy rolled his head to the side, looking at Steve with a half-smile for the shock in his voice. "Seriously. Don't get me wrong, he was a great guy, but he wasn't much on 'focus', and he'd grown up pretty wild himself. Great pal, _lousy_ father-figure. And a javelina is kind of like a wild pig, except they've got longer tusks and musk glands like a skunk, which they use the same way. Not fond of people, either." 

"City boy," Steve offered to explain why he'd asked. "Grew up in Brooklyn," he said with a half-smile. "What I know about the outdoors came from my time in Europe." He slowly laid back down. "Why a bow? Just the … Dineh influence? Been curious about Barton's preference for it too. I mean, guns don't seem to be strangers to you, either of you that is. But a bow is so… old."

"An' javalinas are pretty much desert critters," Roy agreed, smiling over at him, wryly amused. "Bow because it was what he was good at. As for Green Arrow, well, he kinda got himself thrown overboard, washed up on an island full of nasty people, and had to survive any way he could. He'd done archery in prep school, so he already knew it. Came home wantin' to be a modern-day Robin Hood, saving people and fixing some of the shit he'd done." He rolled his eyes, amused and affectionate and still wanting to knock GA in the head a few times. "Then hey, here he was with a kid partner." 

"Any clue who thought it was such a bright idea to shuffle you off to a perfect stranger in a life that was as far from what you knew as possible?" Steve asked idly. "Because I'm betting it's bit you hard a few times." He tried to imagine someone using a bow against the criminals he'd read about in the papers since he woke up. Then again, a modern-day Robin Hood taking on corporate greed made sense.

Roy shrugged, watching the ceiling. "He didn't want me to know he was dying, and the elders wouldn't have let me stay. He was trying to protect me, and I wouldn't trade most of my life since GA got me for anything. I mean, it got me the best friends, best team, anybody could ask for. ...but you're not wrong that it's taken a few bites out of me, too." 

Steve made a small noise, mostly agreement. "Teams and friends… good things, when you get to keep them," he said softly. "Sorry you wound up out of your own place, Roy, but it was an honor to fight with you out there. So this GA and your Dineh guardian did something right by you."

Roy couldn't help but grin, turning onto his side enough to look at Steve. "Thanks," he said, quiet and pleased. Steve had so much presence it was hard not to feel like he was around Sentinel or Wildcat, plus that he was a 'Greatest Generation' vet... "It was a good fight. Nice to be able to actually cut loose instead of having to be so careful..." 

"Yeah. Learning how to keep it in check against the soldiers, save it for the real threats," Steve said softly. "Real hard. But I eventually got it down." He gave a half-smile. "And you're welcome, but I mean it."

Roy nodded a little. "Our Donna-girl's got that problem, she's way stronger than any human. Me, all I've got is my eye and the muscle I've put on over all these years. ...just, kill-shots are easier than just disabling or incapacitating, y'know?" 

Steve nodded. "Can use a gun, fairly coordinated… but I prefer my shield." He looked over at it, mostly hidden under their bags. "And I'll never be like what I saw Agent Barton doing out there. Or you."

"Never say never," Roy said, flashing him a smile, "but you'd have to live it every hour of every day for a few years. I started with the bow when I was four, the hero gig when I was twelve, and I've been doing it, or working as a special agent, pretty much ever since. ...and I was born just a couple years before the Vietnam War." 

"Viet… is that the war America hated her soldiers for?" Captain America asked, for the voice had shifted, low and intent and full of judgment for such a thing.

Roy ground his teeth, his own mouth setting hard. He didn't remember it firsthand, but what Hal had told him, what Wilson would growl out at times... and he did pay attention. What had happened to the soldiers could just as easily happen to his community, if things went the wrong way. Had happened to the JSA, once. "Yeah. GA's best friend in the community, Green Lantern, he was a 'Nam vet. Took his share of hate off people I think should have known better... but then, I was still on the rez during most of that. One of my best friends' dad was a 'Nam vet, too, and he went expatriate for... at least fifteen, maybe twenty years, mostly because of that shit." 

"And you say we won, just like Fury did," Steve said. "Saved people, yes… but in a generation and a half, this country fell hard. Now it's been that again, and my reading keeps turning up more and more poison."

Roy breathed out a long, low sigh, looking at Steve thoughtfully. "There's a lot of poison to find," he agreed after a little while, "but there's a lot of good, too. The Jim Crow laws got abolished -- at least mostly, though jackass belagaana politicians keep trying to sneak 'em back in. Things are better on the reservations than they used to be, and we can practice our religions without being afraid. Women don't face the same glass ceilings they used to, even though things still aren't great for a lot of ladies out there. Back-alley abortions aren't the leading cause of death for childbearing women anymore, and marital rape is finally illegal in every state -- even if that _did_ take Donna and Diana getting a little... aggressive. Gay men, lesbians, trans people... things are still bad, but it's not _legal_ for most places to refuse 'em housing, or refuse to hire 'em, throw 'em in prison just for who they love... 

"Yeah, we're still messed up, but we're not stuck in the '40s anymore." 

"Forties weren't great, but weren't bad either," Steve protested. "But yeah… not bad if you were a certain kind of person, mostly, like you said early, like what I am now," he agreed. "Maybe I just need time. To see the good. Because most of what I've read is the kind of nightmare I thought I was helping stop from coming true."

He then half-laughed. "You talk it better than anyone else I've seen since I woke up, Roy. Thanks."

"You're welcome," Roy answered, smiling at him slow and easy. "Hey, live with an Amazon with a divine mission to spread fairness, equality, and justice for a couple of decades, you'll be able to talk it, too."

Steve mouthed 'Amazon' at him, then grinned. "You don't look that old. But then, sometimes, I think Agent Romanoff is older than she looks too."

"Got exposed to some fun chemicals, apparently, back when we were kids," Roy said, grinning back, "slowed our aging, then mostly stopped it. We... try not to think too hard about how old we really are, 'til something shoves it in our faces. I've been about this age since sometime in the early '80s? And yeah, 'Amazon', off this hidden, magic island in the mid-Atlantic. Strength and flight and some other stuff from the greek gods and goddesses, and like I said, divine mission." 

"Huh." He was really beginning to regret his comment on the jet. Because really, he was supposed to be Captain America. He should embody all of Uncle Sam's principles, and life was turning up the idea that his beliefs weren't the only real ones out there. "Hey, we should probably try and rest… not sure we're far enough away to make Fury get his exercise in."

"Probably right," Roy agreed. He'd give the man a break -- he'd only had two weeks, and if all he'd had was surface-level history... yeah, he could see why he was upset. He moved enough to strip off his jeans and slide between the sheets, stretching and rearranging the pillows to get comfortable before he reached to kill the light 

Steve had stood up long enough to strip to his own briefs, and as he settled under his own covers, he gave a silent prayer that he could sleep… but only long enough to rest, not to dream.

++++

Steve wondered what part of his gear had the bug, and wondered also if he was mistaken to trust Natasha Romanoff at all. He'd gone down to get coffee in what passed for the hospitality area, and knew the man in the baseball cap behind the newspaper was exactly who he had expected to come after him.

The fact Nick Fury had waited out here, though, said a lot in the back of his brain. It was courteous, and less high-handed than Steve had expected.

"It's burnt and old," Nick said as he folded his paper down. "You and the stranger up for food, there's a diner just down the block."

"Just you?" Steve asked.

"Just me. Had to let the duo handle arrangements, since our hawk was next of kin," Fury said wearily.

One of his hands fisted at his side for a long moment, ache coming up in his chest again for Phil, for Clint having to deal with that, and he studied Fury's face. He nodded, swallowing against the ache. "We'll be there shortly."

Nick nodded once, then got up to go and wait. Steve thought he looked older, maybe tired even… but there were still a lot of questions and Fury lied. He went to the room, slipping in quietly in case the archer was still sleeping.

"Hey," he called when Roy twitched.

"Hey, yourse -- what's wrong?" he sat up as he asked, feet swinging to the floor as he suddenly had his pistol in-hand. 

"Fury's waiting at the local diner to talk," Steve said. //And he's feeling the loss of his good eye. Barton's having to deal with a funeral instead of his head going on straight. But that's my problem, and theirs...//

"....grand," Roy said, shaking his head. "Though 'waiting to talk' with food available is better'n we might have gotten." Steve nodded at that, and finished dressing, as he had just slipped on his pants and tee shirt. Now he took the time to get his socks and boots on, thinking as he did so.

"Fury's a notorious hard nut for cracking," he warned. "I know the department of the war that SHIELD grew out of. I can't see them having lost much when they made the civilian switch. So… watch what you say, listen with those outsider ears, and I'll be paying attention to any cues you throw."

Roy nodded and got up to get dressed himself, pistol down in his boot instead of at the small of his back, and he used every undercover trick he had easily at hand to make certain he looked like the twenty-something he hadn't really been in twenty years. With his hair long and parted for maximum disarray, stubble coming in thick, bright pink shades, and a lazy slouch, it wasn't all that hard. "Your lead, Cap." 

Steve, on the other hand, looked as spit-and-polish as he had in his costume… and he paused as they passed the mirror. "In my old neighborhood, we would have had a few things said about us, looking like this together," Steve muttered, shaking his head. "C'mon, let's go find out what Fury's selling today." He led them out to the bike, with both of them having grabbed their bags and the shield. Steve, while Roy was sleeping, had raided a dumpster and made a 'box' for the thing, so it was less conspicuous.

Roy cocked his head before they even reached the bike, curious about what 'would've been said'. "Yeah?" 

Steve looked at him for a long moment, then half shrugged. "I take it the rich guys from up-city don't go slumming anymore?"

"That'll change another few _centuries_ from now, not a couple of decades," Roy said with a twist of his mouth, remembering being on both sides of that with his skin crawling for a long, long moment. He shoved it off into a corner of his head to deal with later. Long time ago, long time ago... "Just -- wait, _which_ neighborhood in Brooklyn?" 

"Brooklyn Heights, near the St. George," Steve said evenly, not letting anything show in the way he said it. He'd known what went on, listened to a bunch of dares, heard some kids talk about making easy money. Bucky'd scoffed at the lot of them, but made certain Steve knew things he ought to to keep from being marked by some of the worse pervs that took advantage of the easy atmosphere around there.

Bucky'd taught him a lot more, too.

Roy took a second to place that, place it against thirties history, and then he chuckled, quiet and soft, while he looked over his shades at Steve. He did know _some_ New York history by this point, after all. "So you're not going to go up in an offended flare if I hit on you? Awesome, because that is _such_ a pain to deal with. Especially off people I actually like." 

Steve smiled all lazy at him, and got on the bike once their gear was stowed. "Why not take a compliment?"

"I never have figured that one out," Roy said, grinning at his back as he slid onto the bike and got a little closer than he had the day before. 

Steve didn't mind, didn't stiffen or press back; he just accepted it and started for the diner. He parked right in front of it, glad the windows would let him see the bike and its gear, before he led Roy inside. Nick was waiting, sitting in a booth that gave Steve the view he wanted.

As the pair came to the table, Nick Fury looked up at the stranger, weighing and measuring. He had Romanoff's report, and had managed to cobble together some footage from traffic cameras that had not gone down with the attack. The scruffy kid was a mostly unknown variable, yet Captain America was keeping him close instead of parking him with the pair of scientists.

"So, where'd you lose the thread of your plot yesterday?" Steve asked.

Roy settled carelessly into the seat with the worst view, sliding to give Steve the outside seat, too. That the combination let him fold his leg up to ankle-on-knee and put his pistol in easy range... well. Just happened to be useful. He'd seen the mix of dismissal and wariness he'd been hoping for. //That's right, keep right on thinking of me as the 'new kid'...//

Nick didn't much care for the kid sitting on his blind side, especially when he was pretty certain that was a pose that allowed for access to a hold-out. Nick hadn't gotten as old as he was without learning a _few_ tricks.

But he needed Cap. With what he'd elected to do, all of his careful plans having to be jumpstarted or thrown far too ahead of schedule, he had to have Cap. He finally had Hill, Romanoff was still his, and Barton… Barton wouldn't abandon Romanoff.

"Never lost it so much as had another seamstress try to patch on," Nick admitted. He'd tried for years to keep the Council blinded enough to be a useful tool. Now, however, he was going to have to actively oppose their interests, and that was making for a dangerous tightrope to walk on. "You handled the curve balls, Rogers. That's what matters, because it saved New York."

"No thanks to your handlers," Steve said in a flat voice.

Nick nodded once, then 'dropped' his intel side of things. "Is Stark alright?" he asked, the one question Steve hadn't really expected. While Tony Stark was a difficult asset to handle, there was more to it for Nick. SHIELD had been Howard Stark's project, and even though Tony didn't like to dwell on it, that meant he'd grown up under the watch of Nick and others all along.

Roy blinked, surprised. He hadn't expected that question from someone pretty much in Waller's position, but if he knew anything about reading people, Fury meant the question. That spoke well of him. He kept his mouth shut, though. It was Steve's team, Steve's question to deal with. 

"It's going to leave a mark," Steve said cautiously. "Where do we stand now, Fury?"

Nick leaned back in his booth. "Looks like you already handled that. Agents Romanoff and Barton reported they have no idea where any Avenger is," he said blandly. "A pity that we can't get frontline interviews and briefings from them. I suppose the higher-ups are just going to have to face the consequences of their own actions without any middlemen to blame."

Underneath all that bland, Fury sounded satisfied with that idea. "...now there's a rare thing," Roy said mildly, finally sticking his nose into the conversation. "Doesn't happen nearly often enough for my tastes." 

Nick turned his head enough to appraise the kid. "Luckily for all of us, these middlemen will still show up if someone else comes knocking on the door." He turned his gaze to Steve, eye locking on the supersoldier's face. "Right?"

Steve weighed that, took his gut feeling on the matter. So many ways that Fury reminded him of an even gruffer version of Colonel Phillips. Did it extend to a true sense of doing the right thing over doing what was ordered?

"I won't talk for the others," Steve said finally. He knew they would, but he was not going to betray that. "I am what I am, who I am, because I don't like people being hurt without being able to fight back for themselves." He leaned in. "Someone else tries to kill me in the middle of doing what is needed, though, and I may not be so understanding though."

Nick slowly smiled, nodding once. He pulled out some bills, dropping them on the table, before he looked at the redhead again. "Better for you to talk to Stark and Banner, to go home. That gear you used might make other people want to investigate instead." No threat, just a quiet warning to steer clear of official channels.

Roy nodded, watching Fury just a little uneasily -- had to match what he was trying to show -- before he answered. "Last thing I want is more people payin' attention to me, so that sounds like a real good plan to me." //That and my own team _will_ find me...//

Fury stood then to leave. "Eat up, boys. Consider it a downpayment on what the world owes you." He headed for the door, pretty certain that the best way to keep Cap was to give him headroom to run with.

"Not the way I expected that to go down," Steve admitted once Fury was gone, but he was more than willing to get food with the man's money.

"He's pissed off about what happened, too," Roy said, sitting up and letting his foot drop back to the tile instead of rest on his knee. He never passed up food on somebody else's dime, either. "And looking forward to y'all not being in the line of fire for what almost happened. I mean, he could be acting, I sure don't know him, but that's what I see. ...and he doesn't want my tech getting into the wrong hands, which -- selfishly -- I appreciate." 

"Yeah, that's the way I read it." Steve got the waitress's eye, and they got food ordered with Steve being every bit as polite as Roy expected from the JSA. Once they were settled with food, and the waitress had moved on, Steve looked at Roy. "I know it's not your world, but you think you can play guide to an out of time man, help me get a place and settle in until Stark contacts us to help you?"

Roy flashed a smile at him, quick and brightly amused. "Hey, what else am I gonna do? Sounds like as good a plan as anything else."

"Good." Steve gave him a smile, his eyes actually showing it and looking a little more at ease.

++++

"D.C., really?" 

Tony's voice made Steve turn and see the playboy walking up as he and Roy juggled the groceries for the apartment they'd manage to find for Steve.

"I like to keep an eye on the movers and shakers," Steve told his teammate. "I thought you and Dr Banner were getting to know each other."

Tony shrugged. "Made the mistake of letting him looking over Foster's work and now I get what Pepper complains about; he's oblivious to the world."

//And you are totally sulking about it, aren't you?// Roy thought, which was only reinforced by Steve's quick laugh. "Hey Tony, how are ya?" 

"Perfect as always," Tony told him. "Figured I'd come by, get your number, maybe take you on a date," he chattered. "Actually, that's an open invitation," he said, to include Steve, who shook his head with a wry smile at Tony's style.

"Talk to Fury?" he asked.

"Hill, actually," Tony agreed, darting up to help them get inside.

Roy laughed as he got in the door, groceries balanced on each hip. "Well, I still don't have a phone, so you're out of luck on _my_ number, but I'm generally not all that far from Mr. All-America here, so hit him up," he said as he found a counter to unload them on, "But I never turn down somebody else buying."

"Ooh, All-America does fit you almost as well as Capsicle." Tony leaned against the door frame as the two men started putting away their groceries. "I'll be content with one of you cooking for me tonight. Seeing as I told Pepper I'd stay somewhere safe tonight, and where could be safer than with the Star-Spangled Pecs and his sidekick SharpShooter?"

"Why are you staying in the DC area at all?" Steve asked him.

Roy snorted. "I haven't been a 'sidekick' in a couple of decades, boy genius, but I can't think of much of anywhere you'd be better off," he agreed. "Also, it's my night to cook, so I hope you like a little spice." 

"I do enjoy a little excitement in my mouth," Tony told Roy before focusing on Steve. "Checking a lead for one thing. Seeing a friend get a medal sometime this week. And then there's your red-headed Dorothy that needs to go back to his Oz."

Steve nodded to all of that, though he did look at Roy for the Dorothy comment. "You did mention having a Tin Man at home," he pointed out.

"Yeah, who's working his butt off to find me if I know Vic at all," Roy agreed, even as he pulled a towel from the stove, twisted it in two fast motions, and snapped it at Tony's hip for just _how_ lame the comeback had been. "No dog yapping at my heels, though and I look lousy in gingham." 

That got Tony focused on Steve, checking him over in a lazy, slow manner. "Definitely not a dog, or even a bitch," he agreed, letting his voice half-convey an apology for their rocky start on things. He also rubbed where the towel had popped him, looking surprised -- and pleased -- at the fact Roy didn't kowtow at him.

"Just don't label me as the lion. Never got the cowardly part down pat," Steve told him. "Okay, so you stay with us, do your… science stuff at Roy." 

"Is that an exclusive 'us', or is there wiggle room?" Tony teased them both.

Roy snorted, amused, and leaned against the counter, glancing from Steve to Tony. "I don't do 'exclusive' real well, so you two argue that one out," he replied, before going back to putting groceries away. "Kind of a failing of my particular team's, actually."

"I don't find it a failing, but people say I'm liberal." Tony grinned as Steve actually rolled his eyes on that one. "So you actually do what we did back in Manhattan for a living? And have been for a while, based on that decades comment. Been giving Captain Tight-Ass pointers?"

Roy shrugged, looking back over his shoulder at Tony. "Pay's lousy in the hero business, most of the time, but yeah, I've been at it a while. As far as giving pointers goes, every team's different enough that you've got to find your own way. Important thing is knowing why you do it -- and I'm pretty sure I can't give Steve any pointers about that." 

"Point about the pay. Need to see what I can do about that," Tony said with a hint of seriousness. "What star heroes exist, waiting to be found in the wilds of the world, who just don't have all of my advantages?"

Steve snorted, but he went and sat down at the table with a glass of milk. "Serious about that?" he asked his teammate, pointing to the other chair.

Roy settled to cooking, listening to the conversation, though he said over his shoulder, "Not a bad way to do things. There're a few people, back on my side of things. Business tycoons, inherited money, that figure somebody's got to make sure there're people to stand up against the trouble that always comes. Some of 'em put on a suit, too, but... it's nice knowing you're going to get a meal even when getting called to a fight meant you ran out on your three-to-eleven and you're not gonna have a job if you walk back in there." 

"Not just a pretty face with a set of abs and arms," Tony said appreciatively. "I'm thinking something of our own, Steve, an initiative if you want to call that for nostalgia, where we keep our ears and eyes out, put grants in place as needed, protect identities… as not everyone can be me."

Steve didn't let his surprise show as Tony actually used his first name, or that Tony could be that passionate about this idea. "Why are you even thinking on it?" he asked instead.

"Because next time I might not be the one closest to the nuke," Tony said with utter sobriety.

//Or you might be, but not have the Hulk to catch you,// Roy thought, but he wasn't going to say it. //More of a heart in there than you want anybody to know, isn't there, Tony?// "Don't let that I'm not just the pretty face get out, alright? Bad for my image." 

"I'll play up the abs and arms in the press release," Tony told him absently as Steve toyed with the idea in his head.

"Training, resources, funds to help protect them," Steve slowly said. "Doable." He nodded slowly. "I need to talk to Romanoff, though. Figure out how to protect anyone we find and sponsor from the ones above Fury."

Tony nodded. "I get that. Pepper can set that up, keep it private with JARVIS's help."

Roy grinned as he worked on the peppers, listening to the two of them. Always good to see a team start to pull together, figure out how to take care of each other. "Thanks. You may not be able to keep 'em anonymous forever, but the longer you can, the better. Might see what laws there are on your books about citizens' arrests, vigilante justice... heck, check your 'good Samaritan' laws too. Sometimes those help you make the case for interfering. " 

The pair turned as one to look at him, Steve all serious and Tony bemused.

"I see JARVIS is going to have to brush up on criminal law," Tony said, nodding to the point made.

They went back to discussing in earnest the concepts and ideas, with them dancing around defining just what would constitute a need to interfere for as long as they possibly could.

"I don't have context for history yet," Steve finally said.

"And I honestly was blind to the history my company shaped for so long that I think we need more data points, maybe Bruce with his zen approach, to make any kind of mission statement," Tony agreed, recognizing how ugly that part might get.

"So we table this now, and let our cook… shouldn't he just be wearing an apron? … serve up dinner," Tony said once the moment of silent and firm agreement had passed between he and Steve.

"Do you have an apron in your pocket? 'Cause otherwise there's not one in this place," Roy said, grinning as he brought the heavy, sizzling skillet to the table. 

Steve shook his head with a laugh. "Am I going to have to give up the big bed to the two of you?" he asked playfully, even as he inhaled the aroma of food unlike much of anything he'd ever tried.

"If it's big enough, why give it up at all?" Tony retorted. "Pretty, skilled, and he cooks? Maybe we should keep him. Or clone him, since he does have friends and family elsewhere."

"Couple of times, cloning hasn't turned out so bad," Roy said as he settled down at the table, "but mostly it's a bad business. And I'm goin' home, but that's no reason not to enjoy things while I'm here, is it?" 

"Bites big," Tony said, with a laughing smile before he accepted a plate to dig into the meal. "What do you say, Cap, do we give him a night to remember?"

Steve shook his head. "Why don't we leave the foreplay for later and actually enjoy the meal he made?"

"Who says we can't do both?" Roy asked, picking up the bottle in front of him to drain about half of it in one long, lazy swallow. Steve watched, discreetly, while Tony openly ogled him.

"Man after my own heart… just mind the shrapnel and the arc reactor," he finally said.

Roy grinned at him, quick and amused, while he filed 'shrapnel' to ask about later, and settled to dinner. He had this sneaking suspicion that he was going to need all the energy he could get, with those two.

++++

 _"They're vintage. Took me a while…"_ melted into seeing the cards thrown down in front of him, dripping in blood that was already cooling, congealing, one more dark reminder that he'd failed --

\-- and the cards falling became another fall, the man who'd protected him and grown up with him in the worst of the Depression, eyes locked on him as if accusing of failing him -- 

\-- _"I'll be late for that dance,"_ was what he heard himself saying, even as he checked for the best place to ditch the plane. He remembered the ice, the water, and the growing darkness --

\-- seeing the armor so still, Stark was never still, why wasn't he rounding off on someone with another gibe? --

Steve's body was responding, breath drawn in with a hiss, his arm flexing around the man that was on one shoulder on an instinctive level.

A moment later, the sleeping man was awake, lying still as he checked the situation, then he started to talk, low and soft. "Steve. Steve, gorgeous... wake up. Wake up. You're safe, you're not there... Steve, beautiful, wake up..." 

It took a few more phrases, but suddenly Steve's eyes popped open, his nostrils flaring violently even as he remained perfectly still, all of his muscles tight as steel. 

That strength was a lot more fun when Steve wasn't having flashbacks, Roy thought as he just kept talking, low and soft. "Shhh... shhh, Steve. . you're safe, you're in your own apartment, it's -- whatever year it is -- you're all right. You're all right. It's me, Roy. ...You back with me yet, gorgeous?" 

Steve forced a breath in, then one out, and nodded once before trusting himself to speak. "I didn't hurt you, did I?" He then noticed Tony wasn't present… but he heard sounds from the living room. God only knew what the apartment's electronics would be by morning.

"Not a bit," Roy answered, quiet and easy. "Woke up when you started twitching. I'm fine, Steve. You came up pretty quick. What do you need? Talk, not-talk, coffee? I'd offer to spar with you but it wouldn't help any, you'd have to be too controlled." 

Steve rolled to his side, looking into Roy's face and seeing honest-to-goodness understanding there. "It's gotten really rough on your side of the dimensions, hasn't it?" he said as he tried to bring his mind under control.

"Yeah," Roy agreed, just as soft. "It has. Different than yours, 'course, but... dead friends, dead family, choices you made that play in your head a million times, trying to find a better way... People you failed... yeah." 

Steve swallowed hard at that. "I had a best friend. I had a girlfriend… or I think I did. She kissed me. I lost him on a mission, and left her waiting to finish mine." He closed his eyes, seeing their faces in his memories. "I wake up, and they tried to scam me that it was still **then** , but they screwed up. And I rushed out into a world I couldn't recognize." He opened them again. "They gave me a mission barely a week later, to make a team and end a threat to all humanity. But I was too slow. It took Agent Coulson… Phil, Phil Coulson's death to really make us do what we should've been all along."

Roy shifted around, getting hold of Steve's hand, tugging it up between them as he tangled his fingers through Steve's. He swallowed, nodding slowly as he stretched out, tucked against the length of Steve's body. Why was it that _belagaana_ always insisted on naming the dead? "...I can't imagine what that's like. Waking up decades in the future, nothing familiar around you except lies people tried to feed you. And I'm sorry about -- the one you lost in this, your Agent. 

"You haven't gotten to grieve any of them, have you? You've been with me."

"Do I have the right to grieve them? Or am I supposed to just Avenge? That's what I was, the First Avenger." Steve's breathing was hard as he tried to reconcile his desire to go and be one of the 'boys' fighting Hitler with everything Dr Erskine had seen in him. He then wondered if this jaded, cynical world had a place for the boy from Brooklyn that hadn't walked away from any fight… even when he couldn't win them. He sighed, then leaned his head in against Roy's, just anchoring in the present.

"You, Steven Grant Rogers, are a hell of a lot more than any scientist or military screw-job ever made you to be," Tony said, having come to the door as Steve was talking. "You let yourself remember them all, and you grieve, because what makes you strongest is the fact you do give a damn about us all."

"Tony's right," Roy agreed, shifting his grip and the rest of him so that he could get a hand cupped around the back of Steve's head and hold him close, gentle as he could. "If you don't grieve, it'll eat you alive, Steve. You're not just an Avenger, even though that's sometimes all you can do. You didn't volunteer for vengeance, but because you wanted to get out there and help. And of course you've got the right." What even was that question? "You love them." 

"I got the feeling from Dad's notes… you never really got a chance to be human once you became Cap," Tony said softly. "The one thing I might be able to understand, considering that my life has been lived mostly as the Stark Heir. Not a real person, just dad's genes in an admittedly sexy package."

That sentence got Steve to snort, and Roy felt the man's tension dial down some. "They made me into a weapon for display, and I had to push to actually go and be what I wanted. I don't want to be a weapon. I want to keep my promise to Dr Erskine, to be a good man."

Roy hugged him closer, low hum in his throat as Steve steadied a little. "I've got a friend, great kid, gonna be one _hell_ of a hero... He's a product of a lot of gene-splicing by an evil genius. Made to be a superweapon -- and he's a great kid. Fuck what anybody else wanted you to be, _you're_ the only one that gets to decide who you are, Steve." 

"So his mouth is as good with words as other things," Tony praised, finally coming to sit on the edge of the bed. "Hey, he's right. And there's not one of us that fought at New York that day, that won't stand beside you and help you hold on, make a new life in our time. Got it? Hell, you're going to meet some great guys and girls now. I should introduce you to my best pal Rhodey, or maybe you can check in and see if the USO needs a showstopper…"

That got Steve to laugh and wriggle free of Roy's hold, miming a swing at Tony that was all play and no force. He ached inside, and his head was a mess, but both of them were right.

"You don't ever do serious, and I think I get why," Steve told Tony. "And you…" He ran a hand over Roy's hair. "I think you fell through just at the right time. Thank you."

"Kinda glad I did," Roy said softly, leaning into the hand on his hair with a slow smile at him. "You're welcome." 

He twisted around enough to look at Tony, reaching out with his other hand. "You know the whole 'you died for a minute' is gonna catch up with you one of these nights, right?" 

"I've got Pepper, most nights," Tony said with a shrug. "And my work."

"And me, Dr Banner, Romanoff…" Steve said. "Barton too?"

"I think he's part of the package deal, kind of like a nice Jag with leather interior," Tony agreed. "I also occasionally kidnap Rhodey from the Air Force, not that they much like it, but they like my toys more than they hate that part."

Roy snickered, amused. He could think of a couple of people that fit that bill, back home. Yei'i knew Tony reminded him of Gar in a lot of ways, right up to the 'too much money' and 'professional smart-mouth'. And getting Gar to actually cope with anything... pretty much took Wilson. He didn't have nearly that much 'in' with Tony, so he wasn't even going to try. Besides, Steve was on it now. "Hang on to that," he told them both, soft. "That you've got each other -- it'll get you through." 

"Not sure I know what to do with friends I didn't build," Tony teased, but he pushed into the bed, trapping Steve between his body and Roy's. "But I'll work on figuring it out."

"I think we're both working on a learning curve," Steve answered that, before relaxing into the fact Tony was moving his hands in the most distracting way he could.

++++

Roy was not up to putting aside his native culture enough to hit the Memorials from the wars; instead, he was just showing Steve the layout of the city mostly. Tony had left them early on the second day, promising to fly them out to Malibu once he'd cracked the concept of dimensional transfer.

Steve had taken to sketching the places they walked around, making himself a mental map that the pictures boosted. Roy had been curious about the sketch pad the first day… and then he'd carefully hidden the lump in his throat to keep Steve from being uncomfortable at drawing around him. Now, they were sharing a meal on the National Mall, Steve was drawing, and… the air changed around them.

"...think I've got it…"

"Better not be the place that fin came from again; we are not ready for a fight like that yet."

Steve had set his sketch pad down, readying for a potential fight as the energies began to swirl.

"Vic?! Donna?!" Roy's head snapped around, trying -- rather futilely -- to see them, or a portal, or anything similar, even as he moved closer to Steve. "Damn but it's good to hear you!" 

"Featherhead!" Donna's voice sounded relieved.

"Boy-o?" 

That was his Di, Black Canary, and the energies were swirling into a more solid gate as the tourists got nervous and moved away swiftly.

"You're going home," Steve said, letting nothing but joy for Roy show on his face. "Your gear…" He reached around to grab at the duffel bag they rarely left the apartment without.

"Fuck the gear," Roy said and wrapped himself around Steve, quick and intent, for one hell of a last kiss. He let go after a long moment, and grinned up at him. "Take care of yourself -- and the brat, all right?" 

Steve laughed, then pushed him a little. "I will… and so will he. You try not to go getting tossed into other worlds now!" He managed to catch the duffel strap with an acrobatic twist of his foot, dragging it to where Roy could get at it. "Hey… you're one memory I can imagine safe and sound for the rest of my days. Try to really stay that way."

"That's what I do best," Roy said with a grin, grabbing the bag that held his gear. "You too -- and kick Fury's can for me if he's not on the up and up. _Hey, Vic,_ " he yelled at/through the energies, "That thing stable yet?!" 

"Just don't drag anything too energetic through it, and it should be!" Vic yelled back.

"I'll handle Fury and the rest. Promise." Steve stepped away, eyes never living him as Roy moved closer to the gateway.

"Hurry up, Bowbreath!" Donna called, encouraging him to dive through.

Roy grinned, hefted the bag, and bolted. Part of him ached at leaving them behind... but it was their world, not his. And his daughter, his team, his Di -- they were on the other side. 

The energies hurt like a sonofabitch falling through -- again -- and when his head cleared, he was looking up at his family. "Hey," he managed, and then Donna was hauling him up off the floor. 

"Hey," she answered him before everyone, all of his old team and Di, put him at the middle of a group hug.

++++

Steve watched the energy seal off, made sure nothing had come through on this side in Roy's place, and then packed up to go back to the apartment.

It was a whole new world, and he had a lot to learn and explore.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Hawkeye and the Titans](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2410235) by [ilyena_sylph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph), [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly)




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